Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
Special resolutions only happen if 5% secured in advance.
I’m not sure what that sentence means. Please clarify.
Otherwise, I would write to the chair and demand that they withdraw the motion and inform all other owners that they have done so immediately as it is:
- Legally incompetent – nuisance under section 153 does not cover legitimate complaints about breaches of by-laws and Environmental Protection laws.
- Defamatory and bullying
I would add that failure to withdraw the motion and announce that to all other owners that they have done so may lead to action by you under section 237 to have a strata manager appointed due to the concentration of votes in a few hands leading to the mismanagement of the scheme or, under section 238, to have specific members of the committee removed from office for the same reason.
You might throw in that you may also pursue action under section 232 to compel the owners corp to take action against lot owners and tenants who are breaching EPA and therefore standard by-laws which demand that occupants don’t break the law.
And they should inform the other owners that if they take action against you at NCAT and lose, they have to raise a special levy paid by all owners EXCEPT you, to pay the legal costs.
The problem here isn’t that you make complaints, since they are always upheld, it’s that the committee (for whatever reason) allows the breaches to continue.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Generally speaking, the owners corp is responsible for pipes inside common property walls, the lot owner is responsible for pipes inside non-CP walls plus pipes, tapware and fittings outside the walls.
So the chances are that if the cause of the efflorescence is the pipe in the wall then it’s a CP issue and if it’s an external cistern it’s yours. If it’s a built-in cistern inside the common property wall my guess – and it is a guess – is that it’s an owners corp issue.
The OC will therefore also be responsible for replacing the wall and mirror and any other damage done in effecting the repair.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
After plumbers report, strata manager firstly advised there is no bylaw for my renovations/that I should have had a bylaw when renovating so we need to call a meeting to pass bylaw now but can they do this now/I wouldn’t have thought so ?
Your scheme can pass a by-law to manage the common property elements going forward but they can’t pass a retrospective by-law or one that apportions resposibility to you without your approval. In other words, it depends what the by-law says and you’d do well to get a strata lawyer to look at what they propose before you agree to anything.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
The main reasoning from the insurers has been ‘ due to construction of the building and the high bush fire exposure’. Neither can be corrected. The SP is in a bush land setting and the buildings are what they are, i.e. multi-storey sawment construction (a mixture of sand, sawdust and cement in timber framing).
Would make a great newspaper story. Just say the word and I’ll unleash the hounds!
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
We know but can’t prove who the perpetrators are, and some owners are getting frustrated.
This is the key. There must be some way that you can prove who is doing the smoking. If it’s on another balcony, set up a spy-cam on a (friendly) building opposite. And no, before we get the privacy argument, it’s not illegal. You can photograph or film anyone anywhere provided it’s not for sexual or illegal purposes and you have the permission of the people on whose property the camera is situated.
But to answer the original question, you can’t stop people doing what they want in their own lot if it’s legal and you can’t show that it’s harming other residents.
Which brings me back to my first point …
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
I think the reason is not that relevant as the question is what happens when the OC can’t get insurance
What happens when you can’t get insurance is that you look at the reasons for that and adjust accordingly.
Once you have stablished that, exclusions and excesses could apply. For instance, if the strata scheme can’t get insurance because of mixed use, they could ask commercial premises to provide their own insurance.
And there is provision in the Act that if the use of a lot cause insurance premiums to be increased, then the owner of that lot can be asked to make up the difference
However, it is ironic that strata schemes are legally obliged to have insurance but insurance companies are not obliged to provide cover at any cost. That’s something Fair Trading could have a look at … just as soon as they appoint their next training wheels minister.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
A motion passed that one of the committee members who also is a solicitor and one of the people claiming a parking spot will do this and be paid.
Well, there’s a breach of strata law right there for a start. Committee members can only be paid retrospectively – i.e. for the previous year as agreed by a majority at the next AGM – for work done on behalf of the scheme.
I would immediately lodge a request for mediation with a view to seeking orders under section 232 that the payments be held over and the issue be taken to an independent surveyor, acceptable to all parties, for resolution. Do it now before this goes too far. Mediation at Fair Trading is free.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
If SM has not given you a definite date, and you know for certain the contractor they will use, I’d ring them to find out what’s happening, and book them to come earlier if you can, then let the strata manager know they are booked in.
Firstly, they probably won’t take a work order from an owner. Secondly, you can only go ahead and organise repairs in an emergency – and this probably doesn’t qualify.
Better to apply for mediation at Fair Trading with a view to getting orders under section 232 to get the owners corp/strata committee to get the work done.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Mediation is needed to have been undertaken (successful or not)
All good apart from the bit quoted above. Mediation needs to have been attempted. If the other side doesn’t show, as is their right, then it hasn’t really been undertaken. Provided the plaintiff turns up, it can proceed to NCAT.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Planning, Services, Fair Trading, NCAT (AG’s) and many other government departments are chasing their tails at the moment, under-staffed, underfunded and overworked. This is the other side of the much-vaunted removal of red tape and “small government”. Rules and systems evolve over generations. Not all of them are obstructive and unhelpful.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Section 11 of the NSW model by-laws says this:
11 Storage of inflammable liquids and other substances and materials
(1) An owner or occupier of a lot must not, except with the prior written approval of the owners corporation, use or store on the lot or on the common property any inflammable chemical, liquid or gas or other inflammable material.
(2) This by-law does not apply to chemicals, liquids, gases or other material used or intended to be used for domestic purposes, or any chemical, liquid, gas or other material in a fuel tank of a motor vehicle or internal combustion engine.The key, as other have said, is that the container is secure and safe.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, why won’t any insurer cover the scheme?
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
If the broker says there will be an increase in the premium because of the home business are we able to directly levy the business owner with the additional fee once quantified by the broker?
In both Victoria and Nsw, if a part of the insurance premium is raised due to the activity in one lot, then that owner can be charged the difference.
However, I can’t see that an insurer would justify an increased premium in the circumstances you described. Good that you came clean, though. Failure to report can void some insurances, even if the claim has nothing to do with the unreported issue.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
You should probably take a look at this thread. If the information on the second post there is correct, then the pro-conversion owners are several votes short of the majority required for conversion.
Otherwise, let all your neighbours know about the cost and complexity of converting to strata, and how your block suddenly has to abide by strata laws and by-laws. That might give them food for thought.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.